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j u ly • a u g u s t • s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 c g w 5 1 For Peter 2, the crew at Animal Logic in Sydney once again became the main animal wranglers, so to speak, craing all of the creatures in the film with the exception of the roosters, created by Method Studios (Melbourne). Animal Logic also created set extensions for the aerial vistas and south and north views of the manor surroundings, plus Amelia's house exteriors and some set extensions of the manor interiors; Method built the others, including the McGregor Toy Store, Farmer's Market, Tailor of Gloucester, rescue montage car chase, and the Butcher Shop exterior comps. Will Gluck returned to direct, and joining him was Will Reichelt, overall visual effects supervisor. A good number of the supervi- sory team at Animal Logic returned as well, including Matt Middleton, Animal Logic's visual effects supervisor, and Simon Pickard, animation director. Animal Logic completed nearly 1,300 VFX shots (1,160 involving animation). Method, led by Visual Effects Supervisor Josh Sim- monds and Animation Supervisor Nicholas Tripodi, worked on 150 shots, 100 of which were shared with Animal Logic. Work on the sequel began shortly aer the original Peter Rabbit, with preproduction starting August 2018. Filming began in early 2019, first in Sydney and rural New South Wales, then in and around London and the Lake District in the UK. As with the original film, for Peter 2, VFX and animation repre- sentatives, including Reichelt and Pickard, were able to spend time on set advising the production to ensure the shots were opti- mized for the CGI that would be added later. Even though production of Peter 2 followed closely aer the original, a good deal of development work was done to the returning CG characters. "Between the first and second movies, Will Gluck came to us and said the way he was going to shoot the second film would be slightly different from how he had shot the first," says Pickard. In the original, when we see the CG char- acters, the shots are framed wider and the characters are farther away from the lens. Gluck realized he could zoom in closer and still maintain the desired level of believability. "And by the end of the first Peter film, he was pushing in on the plates, getting into the characters' faces so you could feel the emotion," Pickard adds. On Peter 2, the camera was a lot closer throughout the film, and the micromove- ments in the characters' faces were visible. To prepare for that, the assets team worked with animation to revise the facial rigs, adding extra fidelity particularly around the eyes, brows, and mouth to get a finer level of detail. The Furry Cast The look of Peter and the rabbits retain the design spirit of Potter's story illustrations, but certain adjustments were made so they appeared more photorealistic to better fit into the live-action world. As a result, on the first film, the artists had studied real rabbits, referencing their physiology and movement (from hopping to eating), as well as proper- ties of their fur and position of their eyes. The characters in the books are nearly al- ways upright on their hind legs, but the rab- bits in the movie also have the added ability to hunch down on all fours to hop away. This helps to keep them looking natural and rabbit-like, rather than always walking on two legs like their human companions. In fact, Animal Logic has a rich history with CG animals, from penguins to owls, dragons to rabbits, all with their unique challenges. In addition to these hurdles, the Peter Rabbit 2 team were also dealing with an entirely new USD-based pipeline. This involved integrating standard third-part applications, such as Pixologic's ZBrush (for sculpting), SideFX's Houdini (for simulation), Autodesk's Maya (for animation), and Marvelous Designer's soware (for clothing). The team also built upon a number of proprietary in-house solutions, like Beast (for rigging), Glimpse (for rendering), Weave (for cloth), Ash (for shading), Filament (for lighting), and ALFRO (for fur). These tools were all joined to form a highly automat- ed pipeline that could provide fully furred, simulated, lit, and rendered reviews for all departments' dailies. The surfacing team constructed the rab- bit fur in a way that mimics the dense pelt of an actual bunny. "There are three types of fur — a base level of so down, the main lay- er of guard hairs, and the sparser but longer guide hairs. Plus, each type of fur is colored to match that of a real rabbit," says Reichelt. "Matching the complexity of rabbit fur was essential to getting the level of detail needed to make them look as realistic as possible." Big Leap Forward Pickard points to two significant techno- logical advancements in this film, both pro- Animal Logic used its ALFRO grooming tool to add millions of hairs to each character.